Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Ah, the SEC -- a beautiful thing to be writing about. There is so much news every day, the hard part is digging through it and figuring out what to leave aside. But we do what we can.

Today, we'll be looking at Arkansas, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Arkansas

The big news today in Razorback country is that Danny Nutt, running backs coach and son younger brother of Boss Hog Houston Nutt has decided to step down. The reason, it seems, is serious health issues. The RazorBlog has coverage, and explains what's up:

Danny Nutt is currently under treatment for a serious condition that includes bleeding from his brain stem. The condition first became critical in December of 1998 when Nutt was hospitalized for more than a month. He missed coaching in the 1999 Comp USA Florida Citrus Bowl while undergoing surgery and treatment. Danny missed spring practice in 2000 after a relapse, but returned to the sidelines for the fall campaign.

We here at the Best of the SEC Blogs wish Danny a quick recovery, and offer our prayers to him and his family. His father says that “Our first and only priority at this point is to see that Danny’s health is fully restored,” and I think that is exactly where it should be. Razorbloggers also covers the story and has more links to news. Still more coverage can be found at the Hawg Blawg.

The Hawg Blawg also links to this post on the Arkansas Rivals site, where the writer, Robert Shields, makes the case for Arkansas to leave the SEC and join the Big 12. His argument seems to center around what he calls the "Northwesternization" of UA sports, arguing that the Arkansas Board of Trustees decision to move football games out of Little Rock has created a vacuum outside of Washington and Benton counties:

If the northwesternization of the UofA continues on its current track, in time it will be tougher to convince a kid from Little Rock to not go to a school where he can play in the SEC and to instead come north to play in corn country.

Never has the case been stronger that Arkansas belongs in the Big 12. Sure, they are happy to take our money from the rest of the state as long as we want to play by their New State Order, but who needs you when everything the UofA could possibly want is in northwest Arkansas? Or so some in the ivory tower believe.

No disrespect to the Big Ten, but most of the time there were three or four good teams in the Big Ten each year. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State were pretty good and then there might be another team or two that was better that year. But here [in the S.E.C.] there were eight or nine teams that were all pretty good. That was a challenge to play with the kind of consistency you needed to be able to sustain that kind of performance.

Anybody that has won a national championship in this league, that speaks volumes to me because of the quality of this league from top to bottom and the consistency it takes to be successful long-term.

Kyle takes umbrage at Saban's apparent lack of appreciation for recent college football history. But that's not all:

What troubles me is that, even though these S.E.C. coaches are pandering to the worst elements of their fan bases by saying such things, their observations are those of interlopers insultingly playing to the lowest common denominator. Other than the home-grown Phillip Fulmer, the smart-mouths saying such things are, to a man, immigrants who are not native to Southern soil.

I think he has a point. The bravado espoused by SEC football coaches this year seems to stretch the limits of sanity -- and credibility as well.

As for Spurrier, the 62-year-old said he remains happy at USC and plans to sign the amended contract “in the next day or two.”“It wasn’t any big deal,” Spurrier said. “I was just trying to get it the right way.”

"The right way," hmm? I don't want to give any Gamecock fans the vapors, or anything, but those are the exact words used by Florida hoops coach Billy Donovan -- right before he took (and later that week, left) the Magic job.

Adam Caparell at CSTV writes that the expectations are rising in Columbia, and Spurrier has had 3 years to put together a team that will run his system. Caparell also places the OBC way, way up there among SEC football deities:

The Gamecocks would be stupid not to listen to what Spurrier has to say. After all, he's done nothing but succeed at every one of his college stops and in the pantheon of SEC coaches, he only takes a back seat to Bear Bryant.

Finally, Leftover Hot Dog has several recent posts on the USC freshman class, the OBC, Tre Kelley, and Quentin Richardson. Just keep scrolling.

BLEG: I got some helpful feedback from a kind reader on an Ole Miss blog I hadn't seen. I am still looking for more Ole Miss, Vandy, and South Carolina blogs, so if you don't see your favorite on here or are just inclined to help out, leave a comment or an email. It would be appreciated.

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BestofSEC

I am a fan of all SEC sports, but full disclosure requires that I tell you I am a University of Kentucky fan first. However, my commentary and offerings on this blog will not be UK-centric. To the contrary, UK will be treated as fairly as cognitive dissonance will allow.
Email: Bestofsec@gmail.com